Cable TV alternatives wither with Aereo ruling: Your Say

The Supreme Court this week ruled in favor of TV networks and cable companies against Aereo, a start-up that rebroadcasts live programs to subscribers without paying retransmission fees. Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

The Average Joe loses again. I thought the Aereo service was great, and I didn't have to break my neck climbing on the roof of my two-story house to put up an outdoor antenna, as I live in a fringe area for broadcast TV. I was simply leasing one with Aereo.

— Gordon Green

I desperately wish Aereo had won, but I never saw how it could go that way. There's no functional difference between Aereo and a cable company, and cable companies are required by the current legal framework to pay broadcasters to retransmit what is supposed to be free over-the-air TV.

Local broadcasters have a license to steal through the government-enforced monopoly they are awarded in their market areas. What we need is for Congress to reform retransmission consent from top to bottom.

— Betty Zeman

I got rid of cable a long time ago and don't miss it one bit. Thanks to Aereo, I had access to local broadcasts such as news and weather. Once again, the Supreme Court proves it is totally out of step with everyone and everything except giant corporations.

— Earl Hartsell

Don't forget the fact that the content Aereo was giving its subscribers access to is copyrighted.

Why should anyone be able to profit from distribution of someone else's copyrighted content without permission?

— David Fairchild

Pirating movies is illegal, but it happens every day. If the technology is out there, there is no stopping it.

The Supreme Court can rule however you want, but it won't stop that.

— Christopher Bacon

This ruling means that people will have to keep paying exorbitant fees for garbage channels.

I am also tired of not being able to choose which NFL team I see play on Sundays during football season. I always have to watch the Titans where I live.

— Karl Lukis

I dropped my cable TV service because I got tired of overpaying for garbage channels.

Everybody should drop their cable TV for a period of time in protest; imagine what kind of message that would send to the conglomerates.

— Brian Deeley

Unfortunately, to stream TV content over the Internet nowadays, you are often required to have be a cable TV or satellite subscriber. It's not just the cable channels, but ABC also now requires a cable or satellite TV login to watch its shows on the Internet. I predict more people will pirate programming.